Fang Fever
by TooManyIdeas14
Summary: The White Fang is planning to capture a bioweapon and use it to destroy humanity, and Team RWBY must stop them. There's only one problem-Ruby Rose is afraid of getting sick...even with a cold. Can she get over her phobia and save the world? Takes place in between Volume 2 and Volume 3. Rated T for safety. This is my first RWBY-based fic, but not my first fanfic. IN PROGRESS.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, RWBY fans! If you read KH fanfic, you may already know me, Cloudhead. I have recently become addicted to RWBY, this wonderful show filled with colorful characters and fun fight sequences, and so I've decided to branch out a little with my fanfic. This is the first result of my efforts, a little adventure inspired by a headcanon I thought of while playing a roleplay. If you're new to my work, it should be a good representation of my style.**

 **Fair warning, Ruby is the only RWBY character I've written before, so characterization might be off. By all means, let me know if it is, and how to fix it. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!**

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 **Fang Fever**

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 _In worrying over the end of the world, we forget how resilient people really are._

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 **Chapter One**

 **Health Concerns**

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There was one official food of Team RWBY, and that was cookies. The team leader herself declared it. So when they ran out of cookies, more of them had to be acquired as quickly as possible to ensure continued functioning and happiness of the team. As Beacon Academy did not simply hand its students recreational food, like they were good dogs in need of treats, this generally meant going to the city and getting them from a store. On this particular day, this task fell upon Ruby and Blake.

Well, technically just Blake, but Ruby had insisted on coming along because she had been cooped up in the Academy for a whole week and she was tired of it. Every locale in the world becomes boring if you stay for too long, after all. In any case, this was the situation, Ruby and Blake going out to the city to acquire cookies. Perfectly normal day.

And it was on perfectly normal days that Ruby was the perfect mix of uplifting and annoying.

As the two approached the bakery, Ruby pointed at it. "There it is!"

Blake crossed her arms. "Thank you for pointing that out. I would never have noticed."

Ruby grinned. "You're welcome!"

"That was sarcasm."

"Do I care?"

Blake smiled just slightly. "You know what I like about you, Ruby? You have way more energy than I could even imagine having myself."

"Maybe you just need coffee."

"Maybe."

As they entered the store, Ruby noticed a young man browsing one of the aisles. He was wearing a scarf around his mouth. That was strange—it was the middle of spring, and the temperature was comfortably warm. She was about to chalk it up to an odd quirk until the man made a small but very noticeable cough.

She flinched and tensed up. "No, no, stop," she told herself under her breath. "Calm down, calm down…"

Blake turned. "You okay?"

Ruby blinked, then nodded quickly. "Uh, yeah, of course I'm okay. I am cool. Cool-lio."

Blake raised her eyebrow. "Ruby. You know you're a bad liar."

"Liar?" Ruby scratched the back of your neck. "Why would I lie about—" The man coughed again, louder this time, and Ruby covered her mouth. "AH—about not being okay?"

"You're shaking."

Ruby noticed that Blake was right about that. "I'm cold!"

"It's room temperature."

Before Ruby could come up with a retort, the man coughed _again,_ and she couldn't help but step backwards a few paces. Before she could hit the shelves behind her, Blake caught her, then grabbed her arm and pulled her to the restroom in the back of the store.

Blake shut the door behind her, then held Ruby by the arms. "Ruby, you're making a scene. You _never_ make a scene. I've never seen you act this way before. I'm your teammate, okay? I need you to tell me what's wrong. Now."

Ruby could tell that she was out of options. She bit her lip. "It was that coughing guy, okay? Are you happy?"

Blake looked around, as if someone might be listening, then looked Ruby in the eyes. "Ruby…are you afraid of getting sick?"

Ruby sighed. "Yes…I watched this news report about a really bad flu in a town I was near when I was a kid, and I've been terrified of getting sick ever since…I've tried reasoning myself out of it, it never works…"

"How come you didn't tell the rest of us earlier?"

"Yang knows, but she thinks it would be rude to bring it up without my permission, and I…well, I just never had the nerve. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Blake pointed at her bow. "I know how that feels."

Ruby frowned. "That's different, though."

"Well, yeah, but still." Blake let go and sighed. "Look…I'm not great at sentimental things like helping people get over fears, so…splash your face with some cold water while I go buy those cookies so that you don't have to hear the coughing guy, then we'll go back to the Academy and you can talk to Yang or Weiss or whoever you want about this. Okay?"

Ruby took a deep breath. "Yeah, that sounds good. Sorry if I embarrassed you."

"Hey, it isn't like you attacked the guy or anything. I forgive you." Blake started to walk out the door, but then stopped. "…I will say this, though. Huntsmen and Huntresses go all over the world, sometimes to very remote places without good medicine. If you let some germs scare you, you might have a bad time as a Huntress."

Ruby looked down. "I know…I'm sorry…"

"Stop saying you're sorry, it isn't even really your fault. I'm not accusing you of anything. Just consider it motivation."

With that, Blake headed back into the store, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts. She sighed. She already knew that she had to get over her fear if she wanted to reach her full potential or whatever. The question was how. Like she had told Blake, if she could have reasoned herself out of it, she definitely would have done so by now—she kept trying. She never had the nerve to scare herself out of it through research, and ironically, her immune system was strong enough that she didn't get sick often or long enough to get scared out of it naturally.

She took Blake's suggestion to splash herself with cold water and looked herself in the mirror. "Come on, Ruby. You've got this." She looked away. "Probably…"

She heard a loud _thunk_ and whipped around. It had come from the back door meant for employees. For a second, she thought she had imaged it, but then it happened again. It was like something—or someone—was pounding against the door as hard as possible.

She palmed her weapon a bit as she approached the door. "Hello? Is someone out there?"

The sound came again, and now that Ruby was closer, she could hear a grunt of pain. She decided to take her chances and kicked the door open. She saw a young man, no older than twenty, rammed against the wall next to her by a larger man wearing a White Fang mask.

The larger man turned to her. "Get the hell outta here! And if you call the police, we'll know!"

Ruby tilted her head. "Are you threatening me?"

The man scowled. "Yeah, I am! I said butt out, girl!"

Ruby grinned. Now _this_ was something she could handle just fine.

She kicked the man away and pulled out her gun-scythe. Crescent Rose unfolded, making the lovely sound of metal sliding against metal, and she pointed it at the man, hoping to intimidate him into submission. No such luck. The guy pulled out his own weapon, a huge hammer, and charged.

Ruby dodged out of the way and used her semblance to appear behind the man. While he was distracted by the rose petals floating everywhere, Ruby hit him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Then she pointed the edge of the scythe at the man's face.

Ruby smiled. "Okay. New deal. You're going to go back to the White Fang, and you're going to tell them that you got your butt kicked by Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY. In return, I won't beat you up worse than I already have. Will that work?"

The man nodded, and Ruby let go of him, watching as he ran off. Blake came running out of the building, her own weapons drawn. Ruby raised her hand, smiling. "Don't worry. You missed all the fun. There was a guy in a White Fang mask beating up that guy over there, but I sent him running."

Blake nodded, sheathed her weapons and went over to the man. "Hey, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

The man opened his eyes slowly. "Yeah…everything hurts…."

"What's your name?"

"I'm…I'm Grey. Grey Starra."

Blake nodded. "Okay, Grey, we'll get you somewhere safe. Do you know why the White Fang was attacking you?"

Grey sighed. "I dunno…the guy kept going on about the 'Atlas Superstrain' or something…I'm a microbiologist, maybe he thought I knew something about something…"

Blake drew in a breath, then let it out again. Ruby could already feel her chest getting a little tight just from the implications, but she walked closer anyway. "Blake…do you know…"

Blake looked Ruby in the eyes. "Let's just say you'll want to get over your fear really quick…"

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 **And there we go, a nice beginning to a story I think I'll have fun writing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! It took me long enough, but Chapter 2 is finally here! So, rest assured, this won't die after the first chapter. It's a little on the short side, but the next chapter will be longer. Enjoy!**

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 **Fang Fever**

 **Chapter Two**

 **The Atlas Superstrain**

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Ruby hated offices. They were intimidating and clearly designed to show that the owner was more powerful than the visitor. This only added to the anxiety she was feeling right now. Still, she was remarkably calm at the time being, or at least she appeared to be as long as she kept her mouth shut. It was a very good thing that Blake was the one doing the talking here, and that Ozpin was his usual calm, mildly bemused self.

Blake calmly went through the required history lesson, occasionally glancing toward Ruby as if to gauge her reaction. "During the second year of the Faunus Rights Revolution, a flu spread through the Faunus population. The flu was natural, and not too serious, but human generals in Atlas thought of the idea of weaponizing it. They were almost done with their development of the new virus and were just about to make it deadly when a breach of decontamination protocol caused the virus to escape into the wild, mutate and infect humans, starting the largest outbreak in Atlesian history. After that, they realized how stupid the idea was and scrapped the project entirely."

Ozpin nodded, taking everything in. "And how do you know about all this?"

"The White Fang got their hands on some of the old files on the project and released them. They called it the Atlas Superstrain. It was a major embarrassment for the Atlesian military, but not much more at the time. But after the White Fang went bad, some people got the idea to turn the project around and use it against humans."

"Well, surely, they don't have the resources to actually find it."

Blake leaned in. "Professor…if they get their hands on that stuff, every human in the target kingdom alone would be infected within two months as a best-case scenario. And if it mutates, all life on Remnant could be at stake. We can't take that risk."

Ozpin smiled slightly. "I know. I was testing you. I always liked your team's initiative." He turned to Ruby. "You've been oddly quiet. Do you have anything to add?"

Ruby scratched her neck and looked away. "No, sir."

"Very well." Ozpin stood up. "Now, normally I would just pass this on to the right people, but if they had their way, they'd just try to bomb the White Fang into submission. I want a more discrete response, at least for the moment. I think Team RWBY would be an excellent choice for this task."

Blake blinked as she stood. "That was my plan, but I didn't know you'd be so willing."

Ozpin smiled. "You've proven yourselves. You fought off a full swarm of Grimm attacking a major city. I think you can handle a few criminals looking for a bioweapon that was probably destroyed years ago."

Ruby stood up as well, though more from tensing up than out of respect. "Uh, yes, sir. We can do that."

Ozpin raised his eyebrow. "Normally you'd be more enthusiastic about receiving such a task. That's why I brought you here to Beacon. Is something wrong?"

"I…" Ruby sighed. "No, sir."

Ozpin obviously didn't believe that, but he decided to drop it. "Well, then, we should get started immediately. You say you took the man who was being assaulted with you?"

Blake nodded. "After he was patched up, yes. He needs to be guarded."

"I agree, which is why that's your first goal. Your second goal is to figure out what the White Fang already knows about the virus, and make sure they can't use it. I'll let you figure out how to go about all of this on your own. I'm sure you can do this without my help."

Ruby and Blake nodded in unison. "Yes, sir."

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Yang cracked her knuckles as she walked through the town. "All right, Grey. You're _sure_ you have nothing to do with this whole superstrain stuff? Because the White Fang isn't stupid. Well, not stupid enough to attack a random guy for info on something he knows nothing about, anyway."

Grey scratched his neck. "Maybe they were actually looking for my dad. He used to be in the Atlas military. I dunno."

Ruby raised her eyebrow. "If they wanted your dad, why did they go at you?"

Grey shrugged. "Easy way to threaten him and use me as a bargaining chip, I guess."

Yang clapped her hands together. "All right. This sounds easy enough. Go to your dad, guard him until we figure out what the deal is."

Ruby smiled, though it seemed just a bit forced, and spoke a little too fast. "And that means things probably won't get too serious. We can stop it right here." She muttered to herself. "I hope…"

Yang tilted her head in confusion, then patted Ruby on the shoulder. "Why don't we talk sis to sis for a second?"

Ruby looked down. "Uh…what if someone comes for Grey?"

Yang turned to Grey. "Don't approach people with scary Grimm masks, don't accept candy from strangers and if someone attacks you, scream really loudly. Got it?"

Grey blinked. "Uh…okay."

"Good, we're cool."

Yang pulled Ruby aside, into a nearby alley. Ruby sighed. "That's the second time one of my teammates has pulled me over to talk about things I don't want to talk about."

Yang smiled. "Come on, sis. You know you can talk to me, and I know exactly why you're nervous."

Ruby looked away. "I'm sorry, this isn't very Huntress-like…"

"Ah, don't worry. Everyone's scared of something."

"Not you."

"Yeah, me. I just control it."

Ruby tilted her head. "How do you control it?"

Yang considered this. "Well…just remember you're bigger than the things you're scared of. Like…germs are wimpy, okay? Germs put on a big old show, then get blasted by some soap and water. You're cooler than that, sis. I know you are."

Ruby took a deep breath. "Yeah…yeah, good point. I just wish it was easier to put into practice."

"Just keep practicing and you'll get the hang of it. That's what being a Huntress is really about, isn't it? Never giving up."

Ruby nodded and smiled. "Yeah…never giving up."

Yang wrapped her arm around Ruby's shoulder. "I've got your back, sis. This whole team does. You know that, right?"

"I know. I've got your back, too."

Yang grinned. "Good to know!"

Then Ruby heard sounds of fighting.

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 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for Chapter 3!**


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